The Third Salvatore
by Supper Hot Turk
Summary: Elena is feeling bored with the constant competition between Damon and Stefan when she meets their long lost brother, Henry, who seems like the perfect combination of the two of them.
1. Chapter 1

The Third Salvatore

Elena Gilbert rolled her eyes, completely exasperated with the constant bickering between her two boyfriends. The gang was having a barbeque at the Salvatore mansion, something that was supposed to be fun, but to Elena, it was just boring.

"Hey, Elena, watch me eat this hotdog!" Stefan said, rushing over to her. "I bet I can do it in two seconds flat." He stuffed it into his mouth like some sort of monster and swallowed it whole.

"You're wasting food," Elena reprimanded mildly. She was too exhausted to really get angry at him.

Then Damon rushed up to them, holding a hamburger. "That was wholly unimpressive, Stefan. So you can eat a hotdog in two seconds? I can eat a hamburger– which is meatier, and harder to chew– in less. Watch and be impressed, Elena." Elena tried not to look as Damon ate the hamburger faster than any human ever could.

Meredith raised her eyebrows in Elena's direction, and Elena took it as an excuse to escape from the horrors of the Salvatore brothers and go hang out with he real friends.

"Looks like one might actually be better than two, huh?" Meredith smirked at Elena "At least in this case." Bonnie laughed as Elena scowled.

"It's not my fault they're both completely disgusting," she said. "It used to be impossible to decide which one I loved more… now I can't decide if I love them at all."

Damon and Stefan dashed past them to their pool. "I CAN HOLD MY BREATH LONGER THAN YOU," Damon shouted at Stefan. "I CAN HOLD IT FOR AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME!"

"I CAN DO IT LONGER!" Stefan replied, and they both jumped into the pool, sending a colossal splash of water all over the deck.

When they were underwater, they pushed each other back and forth, and eventually began wrestling as well. Damon forced Stefan's mouth open, then tried to blow water in it, but they both ended up choking on the water, and flailed at each other, not longer quite in control of their situation. Meredith had to dive in and pull them out of the water.

"Wow," Elena said. "They can't even go underwater for a minute without drowning. And they're _vampires_."

Bonnie smiled ruefully at her. "And to think I used to like Damon. At least Zander's slightly better."

"How are you two, anyway?" Elena asked curiously. "Still in love?"

Bonnie snorted in bitter laughter, which Elena took immediately as a no. "Last night, Zander took me out to eat, but half way through the date he was all like, 'Oh I gotta go and leave you here all alone without a car. Bye-bye'. And I was totally stranded there, so I started walking home, and I saw Tyler Smallwood walking down the street, and you know how gross he is, so I had to slip into a store to hide from him. And the store was really creepy and there was this guy in there with a blonde mullet and really blue eyes so I had to try and run away from him, too."

"Sucks," Elena said when she heard Bonnie pause. She hadn't really been paying attention, because Stefan and Damon were racing each other around the pool in a way that looked extremely dangerous.

"It does," Bonnie agreed. "I don't think we can be together anymore."

Just then Matt, who had finished grilling, saw their sad faces and walked over to them, trying to cheer them up. "Hey, guys, what's with the long faces? I mean, come on, this party's great… Look, we got hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, dip… what more could you possibly want from this party?"

Elena frowned, contemplating the question as she watched Damon and Stefan dunking each other into the pool. "I don't know. Maybe, more choices?"

Matt nodded like he understood what she was talking about. "Well, if you don't like hotdogs, and you don't like hamburgers, we've also got Bratwurst, which is my personal favorite. It has a similar texture to the hamburger, and an easy to eat shape like the hotdog, but the flavor is just so much more powerful than those meats, too. It's really great. When people ask me which I prefer, the hotdog or the hamburger, I always say: the third option– Bratwurst!"

Matt seemed to take this topic way too seriously, Elena thought. But something about that statement had rung true for her– if she only had a third option, something better than both Stefan and Damon… maybe then she could be happy.

"Do you have a vegetarian option?" Bonnie was asking Matt, walking over to get a paper plate. It was then that Elena saw him. An amazingly handsome young man– he had dark, luscious curls. Pale skin. High cheekbones. And those eyes– she'd only ever seen that color eye on one person before. Black on black. Like Damon's. And that mouth: so sensuous, that slight curve. His face was a sculptor's dream. Like Stefan's. And he was walking towards the gate of the mansion very purposefully.

Elena hopped out of her chair and ran over to open the gate and let him in. "Hello!" she said. "Who are you?"

He smiled vaguely at her. "My name's Henry… um, I was wondering, is this the Salvatore residence?"

"Why, yes, it is," Elena said. "My name's Elena, I'm a friend of the Salvatores. Come in, come in." She moved out of his way and he walked in, staring around at everything that was going on. His gaze lingered on Stefan's and Damon's.

"My God," he said. "Brothers!"

They looked up from their furious tick-tack-toe battle and stared at him, like he was some sort of dream. Damon was the first to recover. "HENRY!" he yelled. "YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE _ALIVE_!"

Henry and Damon hugged each other, ruffling one another's hair. Elena noted that Damon was still the shortest. Stefan then ran over, and he hugged Henry, and then they both tried to hug Henry, and then they began pushing each other back and forth in an effort to get Henry all to themselves. Elena was embarrassed with their immature behavior, but she couldn't control them.

Finally, when they finished hugging him, Elena walked over and smiled at him again. "It's strange. In all the time I've known Stefan and Damon, they've never mentioned you… are you a vampire, too?"

"Why, yes, I am." He glared at his brothers. "Don't know why they wouldn't talk about me. Huh." Then something caught his eye… he was staring in Elena's direction with a look of wonder upon his face. A look of joy. Elena's heart swelled. She'd found the one, at last. She'd found her soulmate.

But he pushed right past her and kept walking. Straight to Bonnie.

END OF PART ONE


	2. Chapter 2

The Third Salvatore, Part Two

The rest of the party was torture for Elena. How could this perfect combination of Stefan and Damon not be as in love with Elena as she was with him? Sure, she had just met him, but she knew Stefan and Damon… and how they used to be. She imagined he would be something like that, but some how even more appealing.

She had made her choice. She didn't want Stefan; she did _not_ want Damon. The one for her was Henry, and she was going to have him no matter what it took to get him.

But right now it didn't seem very likely. He was sitting by the pool, holding Bonnie's hand. The two had immediately been attracted to each other. Elena knew she should have felt happy for her friend, but she was just so jealous she couldn't.

"Why is your name Henry?" Bonnie was asking him. "That doesn't sound very Italian, somehow."

Henry grinned at her, and one of his cheeks dimpled. "It's not. When I was born, our dad was really drunk, and he just basically spurted out random syllables and said that that was my name. You won't believe all the torment I got from that as a kid."

Bonnie giggled. "Yeah, I can imagine…."

"So, Bonnie," Henry said. "I know I just met you, but how would you like to go out sometime soon and see a movie with me?"

Bonnie blushed in pleasure, and smiled at Henry in an annoyingly adorable way. "I would _love_ to, Henry."

It was so unfair. Bonnie had a reasonably okay boyfriend. Why did she need another? But thinking this felt hypocritical Elena. After all, she had two ridiculously handsome boyfriends. Why did she need another?

_Because_, she answered herself, _my boyfriends are _terrible. And they really were. Elena did have memories of when she'd loved them, of when she'd found them competing for her cute, but it felt like they had regressed in some ways and no longer cared about Elena. All they cared about was upping the other.

"Stefan, your hairs all flat from the water… you better go shape it," Damon teased, running a hand through his own thick wet hair, which Elena had to admit looked great. But just a few feet away, Henry was sitting there, with curls that looked so soft and wonderful that Elena felt near tears she was so cheated.

Stefan desperately tried to fix his hair, glancing at Elena like he thought she might care at all how his hair looked. Maybe if his behavior improved then she might start focusing on the details. Right now, though, he was too far gone.

Elena jumped into the pool and sank down to the bottom, squeezing her eyes shut and willing Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie to all disappear. Meredith and Matt could stay. They weren't bothering Elena right now.

Elena rose to the surface slowly, trying to think of a way to get Henry all for herself. But her thoughts were interrupted by Matt. "Hey! Elena! Aren't you hungry? I made some more Bratwurst for you!"

"No thanks, Matt," Elena sighed, swimming back over to the edge of the pool. She was immediately greeted by a hug to her neck from Damon.

"Hey, princess," he whispered. "Stefan's inside messing with his hair, so I've got you all to myself right now…."

"Great," Elena muttered. She braced herself for what she knew would happen next– it had happened at least twice already this summer.

Stefan jumped through the open window of the upstairs bathroom and threw himself into the pool at a crazy fast speed and swam over to Elena, who he hugged and pulled away from Damon. "I don't care about my hair… I care about you. More than Damon does, coincidentally."

Damon growled and slid into the pool himself to get closer. "You do not. Notice that I didn't leave Elena to go inside at all this _entire_ time– which obviously proves that I am far more devoted to her than you will ever be, little brother."

Elena closed her eyes again and squirmed out of their arms. "You know what, Matt? I think I am hungry," she said, climbing out of the pool and completely ignoring her boyfriends.

"Great!" Matt said, throwing Elena a towel. "Dry off and come over here… I'll show you the choices…."

As she dried herself she could clearly hear Bonnie and Henry having the kind of conversations that people who _actually_ like each other had (as opposed to the conversations Stefan and Damon had with Elena).

"So what year were you born, exactly?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh, I don't even remember…. It was the year after Damon and the year before Stefan, or something like that. I kind of forgot the exact date over the years."

Bonnie giggled. "That's cool. I probably would, too. Stefan's been alive for just about _forever_, so if you're older… wow."

"But I look eighteen!" Henry said. "Being a vampire certainly has its bonuses."

Elena watched them, her heart aching in the absolute injustice of the entire situation… the Salvatore brothers were hers. Every one of them. She would make Henry see that. She could do it.

"Wow, look at you," Meredith remarked gently as she walked over to the pool. "Now I know what people mean when they say 'green with envy'. Are you okay?"

"No," Elena said shortly. "But soon enough, I will be. Just mark my word…."

She started towards the table of food, but didn't make it three feet before she was flanked once again by Damon and Stefan.

Stefan grabbed her hand; Damon put his hand around her shoulder and leaned in close. "Are you okay, princess?" Damon asked her.

"Angel, what's wrong?" Stefan asked.

Elena pushed them both aside as hard as she could. It was impossible to walk when people were coming at you from both sides. "Guys, can you please leave me alone for a minute? Why don't you go have some more of your races or whatever?"

Her idea was received well by Damon and Stefan, who both yelled at once "BECAUSE I ALREADY WON ALL OF THEM!" and then, deciding that more challenges were in order, ran off. "God," Elena said, collecting a plate from Matt and letting his obsessive ramblings about the different kind of chips wash over her. "My life is so awful."

Meanwhile, Damon beat Stefan at a race around the pool, but refused to take up Stefan's rematch. Instead, he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him over into a shady corner underneath a tree to make sure they had some privacy.

"Something's up with Elena. She hardly even congratulated me for the twenty-five feet leaps in the air I was able to make earlier today."

Stefan smiled at him gloatingly. "That's because I beat you."

Damon rolled his eyes. "You did not. Anyway, I think that her attitude– it has something to do with Henry's return."

Stefan's eyes widened. "You don't think that maybe she–" He broke off, unable to voice the horrible, nightmarish idea that Damon was suggesting.

_I do think, _Damon thought at him. _She probably thinks he's the Bratwurst of the Salvatore family. _

Stefan grew paler than he already was, which was very hard. He began hyperventilating, too. "Oh, no!" he said. "Why does she would she like him? Why? Besides, he likes Bonnie. Can't she see that?"

Damon shook his head at him. _That's not the question_, he told Stefan. _The question is… what're we gonna do about it?_

END OF PART TWO


	3. Chapter 3

The Third Salvatore, Part Three

The party began to wrap up that evening, when Elena could no longer stand seeing Henry and Bonnie together. The two were now inseparable. It was completely infuriating.

Damon and Stefan ran over to Elena right before she left, looking distressed (she hadn't bothered to say good-bye to either of them). "Elena," Damon said, grabbing her hand in both of his, "when you get home, I'll be there waiting for you."

Elena sighed. "Damon–"

"I'll be there first!" Stefan said, and he sped off. Damon started, too, but Elena grabbed his arm.

"Damon, look… what I would love most right now is some alone time, okay? Can I please just go to bed in tonight in my room by _myself_? I've had a long day." Of course, she wouldn't mind if Henry were the one sitting there watching as she slept, as Damon and Stefan did all the time. There was something more romantic about their brother.

His barely visible pupils dilating, Damon took a step away from Elena. "You don't want me there?" he asked. He wasn't stupid, Elena reminded herself, despite how he had been acting lately with Stefan. He must have noticed that she was growing wary of his constant presence. She wondered how he felt about that. Probably horrified. Unfortunately, Elena couldn't make herself feel bad for him. The image of him stuffing a whole hamburger into his mouth prevented that.

Elena forced a smile at him. "Yeah. Like I said, I've had kind of a long day. Why don't you stay here tonight? After all, your brother just got back. Don't you want to entertain him? Catch up with him? Or anything?"

Damon frowned. "You know, I guess I should. I've been too distracted with you all day to actually pay him any attention… of course, he's all wrapped up with Bonnie, too, so…." Elena's blood boiled.

"Stay here," Elena ordered Damon. "And make Bonnie leave. Henry needs time with his brothers. He just got back."

"Okaaay," Damon said. "Sounds like a plan."

Elena started to leave.

"Wait," Damon said, grabbing her around the waist. "Can I please have a goodnight kiss?" Elena reluctantly gave him one that left as quickly as she could. She had other plans for tonight, and Damon was just delaying her.

She was going to get help from Mrs. Flowers, and make a love potion so that Henry would fall in love with her.

…

Damon let Henry into the mansion once everyone was gone, and led him into the kitchen. It was crazy to being seeing his younger brother again– at first he'd honestly thought he was hallucinating, perhaps from too much human food. Who knew what that stuff could do to you.

Henry had been presumed dead a long time ago, having disappeared in the middle of all the Katherine shenanigans. Of course, Damon and Stefan had both been blinded by love back then, and their brother hadn't been a big part of their lives anyway, so they honestly hadn't cared very much (or at least, Damon hadn't). After five-hundred years Damon had completely gotten over Henry, but it was wonderful to have him back… wonderful, of course, other than the fact that Elena seemed to be interested in him.

"Would you like some Black Magic wine?" Damon asked, pulling some glasses out of the cabinets. "Blood? Anything?"

Henry shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."

Damon grinned at him, pouring himself a large tumbler of blood and Black Magic. "Don't tell me you're like Stefan. You don't feed off of squirrels, do you?"

"Ahh, no way," Henry said, waving his hand. "That's gross. No, I drink human blood– but in moderation. I am the _king_ of moderation."

"I'll believe that," Damon said, raising his glass to Henry. "So, please, tell me: what exactly have you been doing all this time? Why didn't you find Stefan and I sooner?"

Henry leaned against the counter casually, and Damon was once again in awe of the fact that his brother was here, talking with him, and not a pile of bones buried somewhere in the European countryside. "Damon, I thought you two were dead."

"Oh."

Damon and Henry stared at each other for a long time, and Damon wondered what was wrong with both of them. Had they really cared so little about each other that they'd just accept that fact that their brother was dead and not look into it? And Damon had to admit he was slightly angry at himself that Henry had been the one to find Stefan and Damon before Damon could find Henry.

Henry spoke up after a while, the silence obviously getting to him. "On a lighter now, I see that you've got a girlfriend now… and she looks a whole lot like that other girl you fell in love with, if you don't mind me pointing out."

"Oh, come on. You liked Katherine too. So I've got a type; Elena's gorgeous."

"On the contrary. I did not like Katherine– notice that I was not involved in any of the fights you guys were having back then. I was able to resist her charms completely."

Damon rolled his eyes, smirking. Henry was a terrible liar, even now, when he should have had centuries of practice. "Oh, _sure_ you resisted her charms. She just didn't like you, Henry."

Henry looked away in obvious discomfort. "She liked me just fine–"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Just– " Damon stopped and stared at Henry. "I know you liked Katherine, okay? I don't care. Just– stay away from Elena, okay?"

"No problem," Henry said. "I will."

Surveying him over the top of his beverage, Damon decided that for now, he could trust his brother's word.

END OF PART THREE


	4. Chapter 4

The Third Salvatore, Part Four

Stefan sat on Elena's bed waiting for her to come home. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

By midnight, she still wasn't there.

Suddenly Stefan was full of anxiety. What if Elena was secretly meeting up with Damon, or, God forbid, Henry? Kissing him, giving him blood… all the stuff that she should have been doing with Stefan instead. Because he loved her most.

"Elena!" he moaned. Whenever she wasn't with him, it hurt. It was like there was a painful piece of wood poking a hole in his heart, killing him. He needed her. "_ELENA_!"

There were footsteps in the hallway and Aunt Judith threw open the door to Elena's room with an incredulous look upon her face. "Stefan!" she exclaimed. "What in the world are you doing here?"

"I'm always here, every night," Stefan told her. Didn't she know? "But for some reason Elena's not here tonight. Do you know why that could be?"

Aunt Judith's jaw dropped and she took a long time to speak again. "Stefan– you cannot come here at night without permission. Elena's hardly a full adult, and besides, this is my house, so you two must abide by my rules while you're here and–" She stopped, choking slightly. "I have no idea where she could be. We need to call the police."

"No," Stefan said. "I'll find her, don't worry, and I'll bring her back."

He flung open the window and jumped away, to search for his lovely little love.

…..

Elena's shone her flashlight's beam onto the next page of the book, breathing hard. Mrs. Flowers had been asleep when she got there, so she had snuck inside and found where the old witch kept her books of spells. Elena was determined to find something to help her with Henry. Mrs. Flowers might try and keep something from her, maybe for ethical reasons or something else that came with being old and wise that Elena honestly did not care about at the moment.

She froze when she found the next entry in the book: _A CHARM OF INFATUATION. _She read the list of steps and herbs and things that you needed and decided that it looked manageable. She could pronounce most of the ingredients: that had to be a good sign.

She ripped the page out of the book and stuffed it into her pocket without really thinking about how Mrs. Flowers might react when she saw that. Then, as quietly as she could, she left the library and went out the back door. When she finally got outside, she sighed in relief. She hadn't gotten got. That felt like a miracle.

She hopped into her car, which, thankfully, was a hybrid and made almost noise starting up, and drove back home, feeling strangely light and hopeful. She could do it. She could make Henry hers.

When she could home, she tried to be quiet getting out of the car and walking up to the house, because her aunt was probably asleep. But the low volume fell apart when someone grabbed her from behind, causing her to scream.

"Shush! It's just me, Stefan! Please love, don't scream!"

When Elena heard who it was, she just wanted to scream even louder, but she controlled herself, and ducked out of his arms just as Aunt Judith rushed out of the house.

"Elena! There you are! You scared me half to death! Where have you been!" she babbled, but Elena pushed past her without answering. Leave to Stefan and her aunt to put her into a bad mood. And she had been so happy, too.

"ELENA! THAT IS NOT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR!" Aunt Judith screamed after her, but Elena just rolled her eyes and ran up to her room. Stefan was there waiting for her, as she had expected.

He reached out to her, looking very needy and pathetic. "My love–"

This pushed Elena over the edge. "Stefan!" she yelled. "Will you please just leave me alone! I am so SICK of you and Damon just– hounding me! It seems like you want to spend every second you can glued to my side, and when you're not doing THAT, you're off being idiots, doing stupid contests to, I don't impress, me or something. Well, news flash: I just think it's stupid. So, why don't you just give me some space for once? You and Damon can go see who can last longer in the sun without a lapis ring on. Loser gets an eternity in Hell."

Tears were rolling down Stefan's face, and Elena knew she'd been mean, but she didn't want to comfort Stefan. She didn't care. What kind of man cried like a baby, anyway? She doubted that Henry would do that.

"Elena, I'm sorry," he said. "Please, how can I make it up to you?"

"Just go away," she said. "That's how you can make it up."

He walked over to the window, still bawling, but stopped when he reached it. "Does this have anything to do with Henry?" he asked.

Elena stared back at him. Yes, it did, actually. She probably would have tried to cling to Damon and Stefan longer if she hadn't had anyone better to move on to. "Stefan, it doesn't matter to you. Just go."

"Okay," Stefan cried, and finally, he left Elena to herself.

…

"Oh, Matt, it's just so great!" Bonnie squealed over the phone. Elena hadn't answered when Bonnie had called, and she knew that Meredith didn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night for phone calls, so Bonnie had, as Matt was so keen on saying, chosen the third option: Matt. "I swear I believe in love at first sight now. Henry is absolutely the perfect guy for me."

"That's awesome," Matt said, sounding very genuine. "But, not to ruin your good mood or anything, I was kind of hoping that one of you girls would like me for once. But I guess not. To many Salvatores."

Bonnie was shocked. "Oh, Matt!" she said. "I'm sorry–"

"Nah, don't be," Matt said. "I don't really care."

They were silent for a very long time. "I'm sure you'll meet a girl some day, Matt," Bonnie said. "I mean, you're nice and all."

"Yeah, I guess I am. But I always end up scaring off all the girls when I start talking about all the different choices you have when selecting grilled foods. One girl told me one time that it was kind of creepy, how much I like Bratwurst."

Bonnie didn't know what to say to that, because she was one-hundred percent sure that she had said that to Matt just earlier that day.

"But I don't believe that for a minute," Matt went on. "Nothin' wrong with appreciating good food. It's part of being American."

"Yeah," Bonnie said awkwardly.

They were silent again for a while. "Bonnie, what are you planning on doing with Henry on your date?" Matt asked eventually.

"We don't know yet. Probably some ice cream and then a movie, though."

"May I recommend Jerry's Ice Cream Parlor? It happens to have a large selection of flavors for you to chose from, something I always look for in my eateries."

"Oh, cool, thanks," Bonnie said. She didn't remember talking to Matt on the phone being so weird before, but she wanted to stop talking, now. "Uh, Matt, I've gotta go, okay? Thanks."

"Good ni–" he started, but she hung up. She wished she'd gotten Henry's phone number. She wanted to call him, just to hear his voice. Tomorrow, she decided, she would go to the Salvatores' and hang out with him. All day long. Being in love was nice.

END OF PART FOUR


	5. Chapter 5

The Third Salvatore, Part Five

The next morning, Elena lay in her bed for a long time, staring at the ceiling as she pondered all that had happened the day before. Meeting Henry. Stealing the spell to enchant Henry. Breaking up with Stefan.

It all seemed so surreal, like she had just dreamed it all. But she knew she hadn't, and that very thought filled her with such joy that she propelled herself out of bed and began getting ready to go out. Finally, she had another choice. She had _Henry_.

….

Bonnie put on the last touches of eye makeup and threw her purse over her shoulder. She was going to the Salvatore mansion, and was very, very excited to see Henry. She rushed out the door and hopped into her car.

As she drove it was hard to keep herself from speeding, put she had to. She did run several red lights, though, but didn't appear to be getting caught. Oh, what she did for love.

Finally she pulled up to the huge mansion, which had never before looked so beautiful. Of course, she was just assuming that Henry would be there. His brothers wouldn't make him stay at a hotel, would they? That would be so mean!

She hustled over to the door and rapped on it sharply, shaking in her excitement. What if Henry answered it? She would love to see his look of surprise, which would then turn into a smile. But Henry didn't answer. Instead, Damon did, wearing silky black pajama bottoms and nothing on top.

"Oh! Good morning, redbird," he said. "Come inside, please, come inside."

Bonnie smiled at Damon. Even though she was completely in love with Henry, she couldn't help put admire Damon's flat stomach and smooth, pale skin. "Good morning, Damon," she said sweetly, "is Henry here?"

"Oh, yes," Damon said. "He's upstairs." He stepped back, letting her enter the house, but he was staring at her suspiciously.

"What?" Bonnie asked.

"You and Henry really hit it off, didn't you?" he said, crossing his muscular arms. "You like him a lot?"

Bonnie nodded, wondering if Damon was jealous. He had been so obsessed with Elena lately that she thought he had completely forgotten about everything that had gone on between them. She would always have a soft spot in her heart for him, but she now that she had met Henry, she didn't really want Damon. She wasn't going to get into any stupid love triangle like Elena; Damon deserved, in her opinion, completely true, focused love, from someone who could give herself to him alone.

"Yeah, I really like him," Bonnie said.

"Okay then," Damon sighed. "He's out by the pool." Bonnie started walking through the house, but Damon grabbed her arm. "Wait! Do you know where Elena is?" he asked her. Bonnie shook her head.

"She wouldn't answer my calls last night," she said. "I don't know what's up with her." She walked away, leaving Damon looking disgruntled.

She pushed on the doors that last out back, realized that she had to pull on them, and rushed outside. Henry was there, looking like a complete angel while reclining (fully dressed, unfortunately) on a lawn chair. "HENRY!" she yelped, unable to contain herself.

He turned to her and smiled a huge, loving smile. "Bonnie!" he said. "Hello!"

Bonnie rushed over to him and gave him as much of a hug as she could while he was lying down. "I missed you," he said.

"I missed you," Bonnie replied sappily.

"I missed you more," Henry said. The conversation reminded Bonnie of just yesterday morning, when Elena had arrived at the pool. For half an hour Damon and Stefan had argued over which of them had missed Elena more.

"Whenever I'm not with you it's like a piece of wood is piercing my heart, killing me," Stefan had said. "Blood squirts everywhere– it won't stop, I'm dying, leaving this world forever. Then: enter Elena. The wood flies out, freeing my heart, and for the moment, I have a reason to live, a reason that can keep me going forever more."

"Path-_e_-tic," Damon had said with a roll of his eyes. "When _I'm_ not with Elena, I don't feel like I'm going to die. I don't give up. Instead, I turn _every ounce_ of my energy to finding her, reclaiming her, making sure she's safe. Until I have her in my arms I can not rest."

All of that might have been romantic, if she hadn't heard it every single day. Back in the present, Bonnie noticed that Stefan was sitting on the edge of the pool. In one of his hands, he held a stick, which he swirled around in the water, making circles and pushing a few stray leaves two and fro. Tears dripped down his face.

"What's up with Stefan?" Bonnie asked Henry softly.

"I don't know," Henry said. "Nothing? He's like that all the time, isn't he? At least, he was when I was a kid. Teenage angst, I guess."

Bonnie frowned. "It's slightly unusual. Ever since he met Elena– well, most of the time since– he's been acting less depressed."

"Hm," Henry said, sounding uninterested. "Bonnie, why don't you sit down?" he asked her. "You don't have to stand next to me like that."

"Okay!" she said, and in a move that was much more daring then her usual style she sat down on his lap. He grinned at her– he liked it.

They spooned for a while, driving all thoughts of Stefan out of her mind, when she heard the gate open and she looked up to see Matt. Her heart plummeted into her stomach and her heart began beating fast. Ever since that conversation with him last night, she'd been kind of afraid of Matt. He was so weird, it scared her. She'd actually had a nightmare last night, where she was stuck in a grocery store with Matt, who kept bombarding her with different foods, and eventually ended up throwing large amounts of Bratwurst at her, yelling "Take the third choice! The thiiiirrrdd chhhoooiice!"

"Hey guys!" Matt said. He carried a bag that was stuffed to the brim with buns, sodas, and raw meat. "I brought food!"

"Who is that guy?" Henry asked Bonnie, not so quietly. Stefan heard him and spoke up for the first time all morning.

"_That guy_ is Matt Honeycutt, one of the most loyal, honest people I have ever met. He's a star athlete, a good student, and an even better friend. And he's–"

"Mutt," Damon cut in, walking outside, holding a tall glass of a red liquid. "His name's Mutt."

"Matt-Mutt," Henry muttered to himself. "Mutt-Matt.I guess he's your friend?" he asked. Bonnie shrugged. Once upon a time she would have whole-heartedly agreed to that. No more… no more.

Stefan stood up, dropping his stick in the water. "The best of friends!" he said fiercely. "And he too knows what it is like to have Elena callously break his heart!"

Bonnie's jaw-dropped. So did Damon's, and Matt's. They stared around at each other, until Damon said triumphantly, "You mean… she chose me!"

Bonnie could hardly wrap her head around the idea: Stefan without Elena simply did not compute.

Stefan shook his head darkly. "No. She didn't choose either one of us. She didn't choose anyone, or at least she didn't tell me who. She's thinks we're both losers. She hates everything about her. She thinks I'm ugly. She thinks I'm stupid."

Damon raised his eyebrows at him. "Maybe she thinks you're an ugly stupid loser, but she could never think that of me–"

"She hates you!" Stefan yelled, beginning to sob so hard that his body shook with emotion. "She wants us to di-i-ie!"

"No!" Damon shouted back. "No way does she want me to die, Stefan! You just can't handle the fact that she chose me over you, so you're making up fiendish lies!"

But Stefan shook his head, still crying. "No, sh-she's just as an-annoyed w-with you as s-she is with me… she's tired of our competing… of our l-l-love!" He finally broke down, collapsing to the floor and curling up into a ball.

Someone cleared their throat loudly from over by the gate. Everyone looked up. It was Elena.

Damon stared her down, desperately appealing to her with his black, black eyes, and Bonnie felt his pain, she felt his fear and anticipation. It was written all over his face.

Elena didn't even bat an eyelash. "It's true," she said. "And I meant every word."

END OF PART FIVE


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update this! I've been super busy this past month (testing for my black belt actually, it was a long, stressful process but I got my belt!) but I'm back and will continue with the story now. If you guys have anything you might want to see from this story, I'm open for ideas!**

"Geez, Elena… that's kind of harsh," Bonnie spoke up finally. Everyone was completely shocked, especially Damon. Bonnie could see his heart breaking right in front of her eyes. Normally he was good at clouding over his feelings– but this loss must have been too much. Bonnie and Henry both hopped up at once and rushed over to him, ignoring Stefan, who was rolling around like an insect on the ground.

Bonnie wrapped a comforting hand around his waist. "Damon… it's okay, she's just upset about something."

Damon didn't say anything.

"I _am_ upset about something: them," Elena said cruelly. "Did you see them yesterday, Bonnie? They're insane!"

"They are not…." Bonnie mumbled. It was always hard to stand up to Elena, but even harder when she was angry. It was as if all of Bonnie's willpower was getting sucked out of her and into Elena, making her even more stubborn, if that was possible.

Henry frowned at Elena. "I'll have to ask you to leave. I don't allow people to speak of my brothers like that."

Elena's expression softened as she looked at Henry. "Oh… sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, Henry. Just… Damon and Stefan."

"You offend me by offending them," Henry said simply. "Get out."

It was then that Bonnie saw something unusual– Elena looked just as upset as Damon did, her eyes just as betrayed. Could Elena like Henry? The very idea outraged Bonnie: after all, Elena already had two Salvatores. Well, she _had_ _had_ them. Until just a few minutes ago. Why did she need Henry? Did she have to claim every boy? That was so, totally unfair!

"You– you really want me to go, Henry?" Elena asked in way that confirmed all of Bonnie's suspicions.

"Oh no," Matt said in a quiet voice. "This is messed up."

"Yessss itttt issss!" Stefan moaned. "I love Elena and she doesn't love me! _Oh no_! _Che cosa_!"

"Yes, Elena, you should go," Henry said.

Tears welling up in her eyes (the injustice!) Elena left. Along with her left all the energy of everyone, and Bonnie began leaning into Damon for support, until she realized that it was Damon she was hugging and not Henry, and besides that Damon wasn't very steady on his feet at the moment either. She detached herself and fell into Henry's arms.

…

ONE WEEK LATER

"This is it," Damon sighed, staring out the window of his room at Henry and Bonnie, who were hopping onto bicycles to go out and get ice cream. Across the street from them, Elena was not-so-discreetly pausing in her walk to stare at the two of them jealously. "Life sucks."

"Yes it does," Stefan agreed from his perch in the window sill, nodding his head sadly.

"How can she like Henry?" Damon asked grumpily. The question had been bugging him all week. How could anyone like Henry?

"Well, he's attractive," Stefan said, "and he's nice, and funny, and smart, and not depressed, and he doesn't act like a total jerk to everyone he meets–"

Damon raised an eyebrow at Stefan curiously. "You trying to say I do?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Loser."

Henry and Bonnie giggled as Henry's bike wobbled dangerously, close to falling down, and Elena narrowed her eyes in frustration. Damon was jealous, but at this point, he was already so jealous this new eye narrowing hardly affected it.

But when Henry actually took the time to bike past Elena and say hi (he was that nice), the jealously reached a peak that it hadn't for days at the way Elena was talking to and looking at Henry, a way in which she had once done to Damon but hadn't for a long time. In fact, she had refused to talk to him at all since their breakup.

And as if Elena liking him wasn't bad enough, the redbird was majorly in love with Damon's brother as well. Damon watched her cling to Henry's arm and decided that it was time for him to do something about all of this.

He opened the window, ready to yell something, he wasn't quite sure what, when Stefan pulled him back.

"Wait," he said. "Let's make a plan."

"You mean like a murder plan? Like how the other day I told you we had to kill or something like that?" Damon asked, irritated at Stefan for stopping him. Normally Damon just liked to jump right into things without thinking them through; it was faster, more exciting. "Stefan, I was drunk when I said that."

Stefan sighed. "I don't want to kill him, Damon. But a plan of revenge would be great– we should do something to make Henry so repulsive that the girls can't stand him."

"Like what?" Damon said, crossing his arms and frowning at his little brother when actually, he kind of liked the idea.

"I don't know. We could look something up in Mrs. Flowers's spell books, maybe she has something there. Or we could use Meredith's stave to give him terrible scars."

"Hmmmm…." Damon considered those ideas, and he was really tempted to go with grabbing the stave and running it through Henry's skin, all over his face, to see if Elena still liked him, but at the same time, he knew that if he injured Henry, the girls would be furious with him and probably get all protective of Henry. It would completely backfire on them. "I think we'd better go with the spell…."

Stefan shrugged. "Sounds good. Let's go."

Damon leapt to his feet, glad to finally be taking action after all those days of sitting around and stewing over what Henry had taken from him.

"Come on, Stefan," he said, running at vampire speed to the door. "First one there gets Elena when we're done."

"You're on," Stefan said, and they raced as fast as they could to the boarding house.

Little did they know that Elena was already on her way to the boarding house herself to get help from Mrs. Flowers for a very different spell….

…..


	7. Chapter 7

Whenever Bonnie was with Henry, her love for him consumed her so much that she could hardly focus on anything else. He was perfect. Physically, he was even better looking than both Stefan and Damon (if that was even possible) but not so much as to look alien or eerie. And he was the nicest, sweetest, most considerate person Bonnie had ever met in her life.

Just being with him with heaven. But a very distracting heaven. Since meeting him she hadn't had a chance to hang out with her other friends individually at all. Every time she wanted to Henry persuaded her not to, but not in a mean way, and he never said anything bad about her friends– he just always seemed to be able to find something else that she'd rather do with him.

She'd had the same problem whenever she was going to find Zander to break up with him. She felt very guilty for not breaking it off with him yet when she was in the midst of such a passionate relationship with Henry, but she never got a chance to go tell Zander, and she didn't want to do it over the phone. He deserved better. And what would Henry think of her? He'd be ashamed.

Right now, biking beside him, her other friends were far from her mind, and so was Zander. All she could focus on was his beautiful black curls, the slight curves of his lips, the way the sun shone off his pale skin.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked as they biked past Robert E. Lee.

"You," Bonnie admitted.

Henry smiled, and it was breathtaking.

"Me too," Henry said, and Bonnie was just about to ask if by "me too" he had meant he was thinking of himself or of Bonnie when she saw Zander. He was with his friends, the werewolves, and they were doing their usual roughhousing across the street. Bonnie watched them, biting her lip and praying they wouldn't notice her, or maybe that they would and she'd have no choice but to break up with Zander.

"They're a rowdy bunch," Henry said, following her gaze to the werewolves.

"Yeah, they are," Bonnie squeaked out.

Henry knew that she had another boyfriend was she had fallen out of love with, but he had never made her feel bad about it. He made it seem like a perfectly natural thing to be doing. But right now Bonnie was able to take a long enough moment away from Henry's hypnotic exquisiteness to realize that what she'd been doing was not okay.

"Hey, man dude buddy fatso," one of Zander's friends said suddenly, very loudly, from across the street, "there's your girlfriend. And she's with another guy."

"WTF are you serious," Zander said, his head shooting over and looking straight at Bonnie. Suddenly all of the werewolves converged and sped across the street to Bonnie and Henry, who had stopped biking. "Well hello, _Bonnie_, nice to see you after a week of you not answering any of my calls."

"Hi, Zander," Bonnie whispered, staring into his light blue eyes and wishing that she could be anywhere else.

Zander's friends made threatening noises with their deep, masculine voices and cracked their knuckles at Henry, who stared back at them impassively. "So," Zander said, "who's this guy? Just a friend, I assume?"

Bonnie cursed her blushing cheeks and told Zander in a voice that was as calm as she could make it, "This is Henry. And there's something I need to talk to you about, Zander, I… uh…."

She wanted to break up with him but at the same time she didn't. He may have been boring, they may have been having a hard time of it before she met Henry, but they'd had plenty of good times as well and their relationship was entirely salvageable. Zander was a great guy. He didn't deserve what Bonnie had done to him.

But then Henry reached over and squeezed Bonnie's hand lightly and the rest of the world seemed to vanish. It was just her and Henry and everything was wonderful and stunning and amazing and she knew where she really belonged, so she said calmly, "Zander, I don't think I can be with you anymore."

"I knew it!" Zander howled, and his other friends started yelling obscene things at Bonnie and Henry. "I knew you were cheating on me and I knew you–"

"STOP!" Henry said suddenly, not yelling exactly but in a voice so strong that Bonnie stared at him. He was standing now, his bicycle lying on the ground beside him, and he looked terrifying. "Leave," he told the werewolves, "now. Or you will be facing some very serious consequences."

"Oh yeah?" one of the werewolves stammered out after a moment. "Like what?"

Henry smiled, slowly and eerily. It made Bonnie's heart thud faster than ever before, in both parts fear and love, and before her eyes Henry raised his hands high in the air and swept them down. While his arms came down the werewolves fell to their knees, writhing in what looked like incredible pain. Bonnie gasped. No matter if she was out of love with Zander or not, she didn't want to see him like that.

Smile still firmly on his amazing face, Henry moved his arms up in one fluid motion, releasing the werewolves from whatever torture he had been putting them through. They immediately got to their feet and sprinted away, one howling, panting pack of young men.

Bonnie turned to Henry, her mouth dropped open in shock.

"How did you… what was that?" she asked him. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and smiled again.

"A little trick I picked up over the years. Nothing serious."

"But… why did you do that?"

Henry sighed and said softly, "To protect you, Bonnie. They were dangerous. What I did was right."

He grabbed her hands with his and stared into her eyes, and as she looked into them, black on black with she now saw were flecks of gold scattered about, kind of like Elena's, she believed him. What he did was right.

He blinked his wondrous eyelashes and all was well.

END OF PART SEVEN


	8. Chapter 8

Stefan and Damon reached the Boarding House at exactly the same time as Elena.

"What are you doing here!?" she yelled at them when she saw them, abandoning the act of ignoring them for the first time in a week. "Were you following me?"

"No," Damon said, staring at her in a way that Elena didn't quite understand. His eyes were narrowed dangerously and he almost looked like he used to, before he'd become obsessed with competing with Stefan. "What are you doing here, Elena? Shouldn't you be out stalking Henry?"

"I don't _stalk_ people," Elena said defensively, crossing her arms. "And besides, Henry's with your little _redbird_ right now, out on a bike ride." She didn't want to let on how much this hurt her.

There was silence for a moment, then everyone rushed towards the door to the boarding house at once, Elena having just realized that there was every possibility her ex lovers were trying to get an enchantment for Henry too. Why else would they be visiting boring Mrs. Flowers? And whatever they wanted for their brother… it couldn't be good.

"Stefan, get in there, and Influence Mrs. Flowers to help us," Damon was snarling as he grappled with Elena for the door. "Climb in the window! I'll hold off Elena."

"No, you won't!" Elena shrieked, releasing her grip on the door handle so she could beat Damon's chest with her fists. He didn't even flinch. She got angry and kicked him hard in the shins, and he jumped slightly, mostly out of surprise, but it was enough for Elena to wedge herself in between him and the door and get a hold on the handle again.

"Why… won't… it… open!" she said, pushing on it as hard as possible to get in. The door wouldn't budge.

Behind her, Damon started to laugh. "Ah, Elena. You have to pull."

Blushing furiously, Elena gave the door a sharp tug and it flew open, but before she could run inside, Damon grabbed her around the waist to keep her away.

Directly inside Stefan was speaking to Mrs. Flowers, and he turned his head when the door opened, probably expecting to see just Damon. Instead, Elena realized what he was seeing: Elena supported in Damon's arms, and both their hands entwined (Elena had been trying to claw her way out). She saw Stefan's face darken, his fists clench.

"So," he said. "You lied. You just wanted to break up with _me_. I see."

"Oh, dear. What is going on?" Mrs. Flowers fretted, looking at them all with a look of confusion on her old face.

Damon dropped Elena on the ground roughly, eyes wide as he looked at Stefan's face. The youngest Salvatore was obviously blinded by hatred at the moment, and after staring hard at Damon and Elena, he grabbed Mrs. Flowers roughly by the shoulders and began Influencing her.

"Mrs. Flowers, you will help me create a spell, an enchantment."

"For what, Stefan dear?" The witch's eyes were glazed over, compelled.

"For keeping my brothers away from all the girls in this town. You must make them utterly revolting."

Damon was shaking his fervently. "No, Stefan. Just _Henry_. I was just holding Elena back from coming in the door; think about it, did that look romantic? You just happened to look at us at the wrong time…."

But Stefan was not listening. "Is there anything quick you can do? For immediate results?"

"Why, yes, actually, there is," Mrs. Flowers said. "Follow me to the kitchen now, dear, and I'll help you make a little brew that will give you the results you're looking for."

They pattered into the kitchen and Damon and Elena stared after them, both equally horrified.

"What's wrong with you!?" Elena said, turning to Damon. "Why don't you do something? You're a more powerful vampire. Can't you interfere with Stefan's Influence or something?"

"I was thinking something more along the lines of ripping out his heart," Damon said in a startlingly calm voice.

"No, you can't kill him!" Elena said.

Damon frowned at her. "I thought you hated us. Why do you even care? You should just run off to Henry now and forget about our existence."

He wasn't being fair and he knew it. Elena Gilbert wasn't used to not getting what she wanted, but it seemed to be happening a whole lot lately. Ever since Henry had walked towards Bonnie instead of her. Elena stamped her foot in frustration and said to Damon, "Fine, then. Rip out Stefan's heart or whatever you want to do. Or stand by and do nothing while he makes you and Henry revolting creatures that no one loves. I can't control you; I can't make you do anything. I should have realized that before."

Damon's mouth dropped open slightly. He obviously hadn't been expecting this. "You… really don't care about me anymore, do you?" he sighed. "You won't even try to push me…. Remember when you were a 'slave' in the Dark Dimension? And I was your 'master'? Even then you'd always be telling me what to do…." He looked away wistfully.

"Look, Damon, I'm sorry," Elena said quietly after a minute. "But I've moved on from you and Stefan. From imperfection. In Henry I see something… something perfect that I've wanted my entire life… and it's not in you. You're too… _wild_. And Stefan has so many flaws I'm not even going to try to get into that now." She paused. Sighed. "You and Stefan can settle things between you however you want. I should go."

"But…" Damon looked hesitant. "Stefan's going to cast a spell on Henry. And you won't like him anymore."

Elena smirked. "Well, if you let him follow through with this spell, no one's going to like you, either."

With that, she turned on her heel and left the Boarding House.

But she wasn't actually leaving. Once outside, she walked around back, where she couldn't be seen, and took out the recipe to her own spell, the one that would make Henry fall in love with her. She checked out the ingredients. The other night she'd printed out pictures of what they looked like. Her plan now was to sneak in after the vampires left and collect the ingredients. She'd find a way to do the spell on her own. All she had to do was wait back here and make sure they didn't see her.

But this was completely ruined when the wall to the Boarding House fell down right in front of her. She jumped back, just in time to avoid being crushed, and looking around, coughing for the source of the fall. Of course, she thought, when she saw it was Damon and Stefan, completely engaged in wrestling each other. They'd wrecked Elena's plan _and_ half of Mrs. Flowers's house.

"What is wrong with you?" she yelled, all of the sympathy she'd felt for Damon earlier now gone. She also abandoned the pretense that she was going to let them settle things on their own. If this was how they planned on doing it then no way was she going to let them do _anything_.

"How could you not tell me?" Stefan was roaring in a monstrous voice.

"I didn't know!"

"What didn't you know?" Elena asked, trying to figure out what was going on. They both looked up and glared at her.

Damon was the first to answer her. "It's Shinichi," he said. "Damned kitsune. Always ruining everything."

"What? Shinichi's back?" Elena looked around, half expecting to see him right there, watching and laughing, but they were alone.

"Yes, Shinichi's back," Stefan said. "And guess what Elena? Guess why we didn't know it was him?"

"I don't know, you're unobservant fools?" Elena guessed, losing her temper. "Why!?"

"Because," Damon said. "He's taken the body of Henry."

Elena stiffened, her entire body feeling like it had been frozen over. "How do you even know all this?" she demanded after a second.

"Mrs. Flowers's Ma_ma_ told us," Stefan said in a hopeless voice. "And you know she knows just about everything."

The world around Elena seemed to be crumbling, falling apart. Pieces of the boarding house fell to the ground, destroyed by Damon and Stefan, but now Elena understood their behavior. Henry had never actually been here. Shinichi had tricked them all. And along with the disgust Elena felt that she'd fallen for the kitsune, she was suddenly terrified for Bonnie. She was with Henry, all alone. Had been for a long time– almost every day in the past week!

Everyone seemed to think this at once.

"Bonnie's in danger," Damon said, and everyone sprung to their feet. "We have to go save her. Now."

They ran out front to Elena's car, for the first time in a long time working together as a team and forgetting about their personal issues.

END OF PART EIGHT


	9. Chapter 9

Stefan drove.

Just like old times when Elena had gone on rides in his Porsche, he drove very slowly, stopping whenever any pedestrians came within a foot of the street. But Elena wasn't annoyed; in fact, the familiarity of it was comforting.

As they drove (to Bonnie's house first, just in case they were there), Damon and Stefan filled Elena in on the story of the _real_ Henry and why they'd immediately believed that this was an imposter.

"Henry was the middle child," Damon said, stretched out on the backseat. He looked casual and relaxed, but Elena knew that he was actually worried sick. "And like lots of middle children, he felt neglected while growing up. Stupid if you ask me. In this case, he actually was neglected, though. Father, rather than abusing him like me or spoiling him like Stefan, chose to just forget that he ever existed."

Elena felt horrible for him. "Poor Henry!" she whispered.

"Yeah, sure," Damon said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway. By the time he was fifteen and I was sixteen, he was about sick of it."

"He was sick of you," Stefan said coldly.

"No, you," Damon snapped back.

Elena sensed one of their ridiculous bickering matches coming on and snapped her fingers at them like they were dogs that needed to me silenced. "There's no time for arguing!" she said. "What happened?"

"Well, Henry was so disgusted with the fact the Damon slept with all the servants and lolled about instead of studying that he left."

"Uh, he was more just disgusted with you in general, I think. You were the most obnoxious, arrogant, idiotic–" Damon saw Elena glaring at him and shut up.

Stefan picked up the story as he rolled slowly down the road. Elena listened raptly in the front passenger seat. "Sadly, our father didn't even notice his absence. Too drunk, probably. And Damon, who seemed rather dependant on him–"

"What!? How was I dependant on Henry?"

"–followed him out our door and onto the streets. What happened then, Damon?"

Damon frowned. "I wanted him to come with me and live a life of crime on the street. He didn't agree. We parted ways. The end."

"Not the end!" Stefan exclaimed. "You came home! And Henry didn't!"

"Exactly. We parted ways," Damon said. "And he was gone."

"But not forever and you know it!" Stefan said, sounding like he was trying very hard not to lose his temper. Was he trying for Elena? At the moment, she hoped he was. "You see, Elena, after… Katherine… happened… I heard some things. About a vampire named Samuel."

Elena nodded for him to go on, and he did, glancing at Damon every once and a while for reassurance on details. "Samuel was an Old One. An original vampire. And he had this game where he'd turn homeless people into vampires, too. Giving them horrible immortal half-lives. Just for kicks."

"Lots of them were sick," Damon said. "Mentally. And made pretty violent vampires. Unstable, you know."

"But Henry wasn't," Stefan went on. "He was just homeless. And he probably faired pretty well as a vampire."

"How did you know he'd been turned?" Elena asked, trying to follow along. It was hard, because she kept thinking about all the horrible things Bonnie could be going through at the moment, while they were sitting here, talking.

"I saw him," Damon said in a hollow voice. "I saw him feeding one day. He saw me after and just stared. He looked worried, like I'd try to stake him or something, until I told him I was a vampire too. Then he told me that he was done with our family and wanted me to stay away."

Stefan scowled at the road, gripping the steering wheel hard enough to break it. "And Damon did as he asked instead of trying to forge some sort of family bond. With his own brother! Who was immortal! Like him! Actually, probably less of a monster."

This comment didn't go over well with Damon, who crossed his arms and made it look like he was going to drop out of the conversation. Elena found this rather infuriating.

"Look, you two!" she said. "Cut it out with the fighting and just give me the details!"

"Whatever you want, love," Stefan said obediently.

Damon coughed, "Suck up."

Elena didn't even have to say anything for them to realize she was angry, just make a disappointed expression. They both straightened up, Damon actually put on his seat belt, and they continued the story purely objectively, no unnecessary details.

"Over the years we both ran into him once or twice," Damon said.

"But this stopped in the 1800s," Stefan said.

"And we thought he was dead. Or something. Before when we'd seen each other in the past, he'd always tried to run. That's why it was so surprising when he walked onto our patio the other day and _hugged_ us. But we were happy, of course. Willing to believe that everything was okay."

"And the days following, we were pleasantly surprised with his attitude towards us. So nice, when he should have hated us."

"Um… or maybe just hated Stefan. Sorry. We were happy, until he started making out with Bonnie twenty-four seven and you started pining away from him."

"It seemed rather unusual that Bonnie would fall for him so easily," Stefan mused. "And you, Elena, as well. Like love at first glimpse."

"The expression is love at first sight, little brother."

"Alas, it was unusual. I should have realized when he began acting hostile towards Damon and I. Perhaps that was just because Damon tended to cling to Bonnie before they went out together and talk about all the time's he tried to undress the little redbird, but I do not see what _I_ could have done to offend him."

Elena pulled at her lip thoughtfully. So he'd been mean to his brothers? She hadn't noticed that in all her lust for him. She wondered now what Shinichi's overall plan was. To make her fall in love with him so he could have her golden hair? Unlikely, seeing how he'd glommed onto Bonnie. Or to destroy the brothers? Possible, but still, he seemed more interested in Bonnie.

What could he want from harmless, kitten-like Bonnie? Uninhibited love? Psychic powers and magic? Just a trophy girlfriend? Or was this something else all together?

She turned her attention back to the story. "And… so Henry does exist," Elena said slowly. "But he wants nothing to do with you if he's even alive?"

"That's about it," Damon said with a nod of his dark head.

"And Shinichi/Henry's been mean to you?"

"Rather cold and distant," Stefan said.

Elena was perplexed, and sat in deep thought for a long time until Stefan screamed and hit the breaks.

Elena had started screaming, too, instinctively, until she saw that the problem wasn't anything serious, and they weren't going to crash. It was just Matt. He'd walked out in front of Stefan's very slow moving car and waved at them in the middle of the nearly empty street. He looked excited about something.

"Matt!" Elena said, sticking her head out the window. "What's up?"

"Elena!" he said. "I have something to ask you."

He had a manic look his eyes and she had a sudden fear that it was about food. Matt's Bratwurst obsession had only gotten worse over the past week, and he'd been talking in insanely exhilarated ways to Elena about all types of food. She had no idea what was wrong with him– it was completely random.

"What is it, Matt?" she asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Stefan and Damon were both looking irritated at the stop in their trip.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?" he asked her. "At my barbeque."

The scream that had been in Elena's throat earlier rose to the surface again and she threw back her head to wail. THIS WAS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR. THIS WAS JUST BIZARRE. WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO MATT?

Stefan started his car again (he'd parked it in the street so that it couldn't hit Matt or something) and drove away from Matt, who stood still in the street, looking puzzled and very insane.

"What was that little reaction about?" Damon asked Elena when she was done wailing. She turned to look at him.

"Damon, are there kinds of Influences or possessions that can drive people completely insane?" she asked him.

"I'd assume so, yes," he replied. "Why? You think that's happening to Mutt back there or something?"

"Yes."

"Funny. I see no difference."

Elena reached over the car's center console to the back and slapped Damon hard across the face. It wasn't until she watched him wince and hold his face, pouting, that she realized something incredible: she cared again. She cared that Damon didn't care and she cared that Stefan did and drove away from Matt because she was screaming. They'd come together enough to try and help her and it made her almost like them again.

Or at least, not be indifferent to them.

And all it took was a boardinghouse exploding, the exposure of an evil kitsune, and an insane American boy.

"Really, Damon," she said. "I think– I know something's wrong with Matt."

"Okay, okay," he replied, still holding where she had slapped him. "We'll figure that out. But right now… we have more important things."

They had pulled up to Bonnie's house, and she was standing on the driveway by her bicycle, right next to _him_. Henry.

Shinichi.

END OF PART NINE


End file.
